Protect Your Brain, Extend Your Life: 7 Mistakes to Avoid for Better Cognitive Health with Dr Tommy Wood #681

Dr Tommy Wood (0:01)

It's never too late to start thinking about dementia prevention. Studies in individuals in their 60s, 70s, 80s, they start an exercise program, they start with some dietary change, they do some cognitive training. They start language or dance classes, or they start to improve their sleep. You start to see benefits. So, start wherever you are, and even just starting with one thing can have significant benefits.

Dr Rangan Chatterjee (0:28)

Hey guys, how are you doing? Hope you're having a good week so far. My name is Dr Rangan Chatterjee, and this is my podcast, Feel Better, Live More.

For many of you listening, today's guest needs no introduction. Dr Tommy Wood has been on this podcast more times than almost anyone else. This is his fifth appearance, and every time we speak, he gives us something new to think about when it comes to brain health and meaningful longevity. Now, if you're new to Tommy, he originally trained as a medical doctor, and now he's a world-leading neuroscientist and performance coach whose research spans brain development, traumatic brain injury, and dementia. His very first book, The Stimulated Minds, came out earlier this year, and is honestly a fantastic read for anyone who's interested in brain health, focus, and longevity.

In this conversation, Tommy and I explore seven common mistakes that many people are making when it comes to protecting their brains. Now, some of them may surprise you, but honestly, there's no need to worry because, as ever, Tommy is full of practical ways to address them. We talk about mindset, and while your beliefs about aging shape how you go on to age, we get into blood pressure, blood testing, supplements, oral health, microplastics, and whether or not you should be filtering your water. And perhaps most importantly of all, we debate the risk of becoming so focused on optimizing your own health that you forget about other people. As Tommy says, social connection does not just make life feel richer, it helps protect our brains and extend our lives as well. So if we chase longevity, but lose our connection to others along the way, well maybe we've missed the entire point. This is a really empowering and practical conversation that, at its core, has the message that it's never too late to make the simple changes that could improve the health of your brain.

You are back. This is number five.

Dr Tommy Wood (2:59)

Wow.

Dr Rangan Chatterjee (2:59)

I think that's a record.

Dr Tommy Wood (3:01)

Yes.

Dr Rangan Chatterjee (3:01)

I think you've just gone ahead of Gabor Masse with number five.

Dr Tommy Wood (3:07)

Well, hopefully, it's not a competition we have to keep having because I'm sure he'll win out. But while I'm ahead, I will enjoy it.

Dr Rangan Chatterjee (3:17)

What I was thinking about how to go about our fifth conversation, I was trying to think of a different framing. And the framing I thought would be quite fun and useful for people is basically around the common mistakes people make when it comes to brain health and longevity and healthspan. So you're up for this? Sounds great. Different kind of format? Yeah, let's do it.

Mistake number one, I think, relates to mindset. We neglect how much our perception of aging impacts, how well we age, and in your latest book, which I love, you quote the Ohio Longitudinal Study of Aging, and you write that those with a more positive perception of aging were found to live on average seven and a half years longer. What's going on?

Dr Tommy Wood (4:10)

There's several things going on, and it's difficult to tease them all apart in a study like this. But essentially what they did is they asked people how they felt about the process of aging. They asked them to rate on a scale of one to five. How do you feel about questions like, when I get older or when people get older, they become less useful? Things like that. And those who had a higher level of the positive perception of aging tended to live longer, like I said, seven and a half years longer on average. And you have to adjust for other things like age and health status and some other things. And some of it could be what we call reverse causality. So if you're already feeling like you're experiencing the process of aging, you've lost some of your health, then you might feel more negative about aging and it's the health that's really driving it rather than your perception. So some of that is certainly playing a role.

But I do think that having a positive outlook on the processes of aging will then allow you to continue to engage in the world in a positive manner that then drives a whole host of benefits. And we know that mindset and how we feel about our own health and our well-being are important drivers of our physiology and important predictors of our long-term health. So some of that reverse causality is possible there too, but we do know that how you feel about the future and how you feel about your health and then aging as part of that is going to change both how you interact with the world and change your physiology. And I think that that's what we're seeing. Some of it in that particular study.